January is Perfect for Diving!

Who says you can't have fun with diving when its only 14 degrees!? They must not have been with us and all the eager divers on Saturday!

Jim (upper-left) welcomes another class to the water here... My focus for the day was on one of our entry-level Discover Scuba classes, so I don't have a final number on total divers but I think we had about 15+!

This weekend I dusted off my old digital camera, found its ominous set of attachments, chargers, and memory cards and washed out it's underwater housing and Voila! I had my own lesson for the day, to relearn the nuances of the camera and the extreme variables of the elusive perfect underwater camera shot. (It's time for a Digital Underwater Photography brush-up, I think! ;-)

There were Discover divers, new Open Water divers, Scuba Review classes, snorkeling instruction and interested friends and family looking on.

My focus on fun for the day were these two intrepid adventurers! Ashley & Chuck! I can attest to Ashley's spirit with her determination to equalize her ears while decending into the depths of the high-diving area of the pool. Chuck joins her here for a celebration shot for the successful traverse down that deep end transition...

After getting aquainted with the deep end, Ashley & Chuck enjoyed watching the activities of the other instructors and students.

After a long holiday month, it was nice to meet up with fellow scuba professionals-in-training, Frank (pictured here, left), and Keith. We've all decided to continue our training in the Instructor Development Program which starts in February. It was nice to take some time out and discuss our shared group attack plan on our months ahead!

I know its just January, but just remember, from here on out the weather just gets warmer, there's more sun every day, and the water gets more comfy! See you here next week!

(more pics for the day here)

Emergency First Responder Training

The classroom is running out of space as the popular Emergency First Responder training filled up the shop this morning! It's a comprehensive class of CPR, AED and First Aid sessions. The class was filled with students from a wide range of backgrounds, mostly a wide array of diving backgrounds but some not. Every student present had to demonstrate ALL the skills! (Even if we have to use extra space to get one-on-one experience).

Although I happen to be secretly absent in most of my reporting, Pam, owner of GLDC snaps a surprise photo of me in training... Not sure why, but someone felt like I needed a real test today and put me to work with a custom AED training scenario that included "Battery Low"! Was I a pawn in a game or just a lucky recipient of thorough training?? Either way, the end result is the same: Confidence from Training!

Very informative class and well worth only one day of training to have the confidence to help fellow divers on the boat or non-divers on land!

Grand Day at the Pool!

Grand was the adjective of the day!... not just in our marathon skills diving day, but in the weather! Just yards from this little blue pool were the accumulating inches of heavy-Michigan snow! Just enough chill in the outdoor view to enfuse us with the energy to enjoy the small parcel of warm indoor aquatic realestate.

Frank, fellow divemaster (left), watches as Sophia signals "OK" upon a successful giant-stride entry. Rebecca (right) looks on with experienced eyes after having passed this skills test moments before...

After her successful demonstration of skills, Sophia was all smiles knowing that she'd properly performed all that was required of her for first Open Water Diver license certificate.

It was only fitting to soak the hours of practice away in the nearby hot tub!

Rebecca and Sophia did extremely well, and I have only request. I'm hoping that they'll come back and tell me about their dives that we've so diligently been preparing for! Another great class under my wing, another group of friends, and more dive buddies for our future dives!

More OWD Training

Its 8:30 in the morning, its Saturday, the shop's OPEN!, and it's time for SCUBA!...

Soon enough it was 8:30, and my Open Water Diving student came in with a confident smile. The master instructor today, Jim, took us both back into the classroom and the three of us introduced ourselves. Our student for the day, Nina, was taking her class to go diving with a friend of hers. This was going to be the first time for me to teach the classroom material for an entire Open Water Diver class, so Jim started and I jumped in and took turns explaining different material. Nina was very comfortable with the material so was a great student for me to work with. She worked in the medical field so many things were familiar to her.

Then we all packed up the gear for the afternoon in the pool...

Ironically, I also saw one of the students (Jerry, middle) at the pool again for a dry suit diving class already! I just saw him a few weeks ago in his first OWD class... he's obviously taking a liking to the water!

We had Nina set up in her gear in no time, but it was a long few hours of practice in the pool. With this being the second time through an OWD pool session, I was getting quite comfortable in remembering the demonstration-quality skills I needed to know. We were a small group so our discussions were social and grew long, but Jim kept pushing us along to keep the show on the road. At the end of the day, Nina was quite comfortable in her skills, and I had another class under my belt! This is starting to get easier and more fun every time!

Dive Master Skills Mastered

It was a small load of equipment today because the bulk of our work for the day was just some basic diver endurance performance.

We had the 400-meter swim, the 800-meter swim with snorkeling gear, 15 minute treading water, and the 100-meter tired diver tow.

Each task had its own benchmarks to judge our successes by, but I'm proud to say that all three of us (Joe, Frank, and Keith) did especially well in every skill.

Just to be sure, our task master, or Dave, or trainer extraordinaire if you will... (as us DM students call him ;-) made sure we didn't steal a single second in our timed skills... Is it just because he owns his own dive shop he thinks he can wield such power over us!? Good enough for me... ;-)


This aerial spy shot shows Dave and I that Keith may have had an unfair advantage with the use of his 3 mill. shorty in the treading water skill... the judges are going to have to take a second look at the results and get back to him. Sorry Keith. (not really. ;-)

Fun for the Reader!

This week was a little slow for the interesting stuff... in case you're interested, I did pass my remaining written tests: Decompression Theory and RDP, Dive Skills & Environment, Divemaster Conducted Programs, Supervising Certified Divers, and Supervising Students.

So the tough bookworm stuff is done for now, so I guess I have a little play time (of course my favorite ;-). The only thing left this week is some divemaster water skills, and I have one Open Water Diver Class to do on Saturday... no problems there.

So I spent a little time to dig up one of my favorite diving pictures for your entertainment (instead of the boring requirements of my recent tests). I can't say enough about this picture! And if I can't convince a non-diver to start to rethink their position about not beginning to dive after seeing it, well... I can't say enough about that type of person! ;-)

This little guy I saw in "The Cathedrals" (more pics from dive buddy Heather) just off the coast of the island of Lanai in Hawaii. The "Cathedrals" is a great dive spot! It's named for the great colors that get twisted as the sun light enters this partial cave from so many of it's "holes". It mimics seeing the inside of a grand cathedral for the first time with all of their popular colored, leaded-glass windows.

Although I never did actually name him, he is a "Spanish Dancer". Kind of ironic I suppose now that I'm dating a human Spanish Dancer (actually American, but after 10 years in Colombia, she speaks and dances with the best of them, even this gringo! ;-)

I hope you enjoyed my pic and some of the info. It's the kind of stuff that really gets me going every day!

Significant Success

I had the day off of work, so today I was going to make some progress! I was on a mission.

First I stopped by the gym to get fueled up in the cafe. Then I did a little warm up, and it was on to the pool for a little pre-selftesting on my water skills tests coming up in a couple of weeks.

Test 1: Swim 400 metres in under 14 minutes. I did a little stretch, set the timer, and off I went...


Upon surfacing after my 16 laps (in the gym's 25 metre pool), No Problem! Just over 12 minutes. I think it's my daily 20-30 miles of biking that's keeping me "afloat" or at least not negatively bouyant! ;-)


Very happy out of the pool, I was back on the bike for quick 10 mile ride to the dive shop. Three tests to take this afternoon.

Diving Physics:
1.1 - Explain why water is able to dissipate body heat faster than air, at what rate this occurs, and what effect this has upon the diver.
1.2 - Explain the behavior of light as it passes from an air/water interface and what effect this has upon the diver.
1.3 - Divine the "visual reversal" phenomenon and explain its effect upon the diver.
1.4 - Explain why sound travels faster in water than in air, by approximately how much and what effect this has upon the diver.
1.5 - State Archimedes' Principle and calculate the buoyancy required to either lift or sink an object in both fresh and seawater.
1.6 - Define the terms "absolute", "ambient", and "guage" pressure and calculate pressure at any depth as expressed by these terms in both fresh and seawater.
1.7 - Explain the relationship between pressure and volume on a flexible gas-filled container, and calculate the changes that will occur to that container as it is raised and lowered in a water column.
1.8 - Explain the relationship between depth and the density of the air a diver breathes, and calculate this relationship in increments of whole atmospheres
1.9 - Given a diver's air consumption rate at one depth, calculate how that consumption rate changes when depth changes.
1.10 - Describe how the behavior of a gas within both a flexible and inflexible container is affected by changes in pressure and tempurature.
1.11 - Given their percentages, calculate the partial pressures of gases in a mixture at any depth.
1.12 - Explain the effect of breathing contaminated air mixtures at depth and calculate the equivilent effect such contamination would have upon the diver at the surface.
1.13 - Explain what will occur to a liquid saturated with a gas at high pressure when the pressure of the gas in contact with the liquid is quickly reduced.
1.14 - Define "supersaturation" and explain what conditions are necessary for gas bubbles to form in a supersaturated liquid.

Whew! That was just the first test! Result = PASSED!

Then came Physiology (I'll spare ya the details, but similarly intense); result = PASSED! And lastly, Equipment; result = PASSED!

Very nice third week indeed!